Where are you based ?
The club is based in Fort Cumberland in Southsea , Portsmouth . The club RIB is also stored there . We used to hold regular meetings at Fort Cumberland , but only a few members were local enough to attend . One of the real positives to come out of the Covid pandemic for us was our move to meeting online . We set up monthly Zoom meetings on the second Thursday of each month and now more 50 per cent of our members join . The monthly get-together is a great forum for members to chat and make plans for future projects .
Who are your members ?
This is a global club . Our members share a passion for nautical archaeology and they come from all over the world , reflecting the diversity of the society ’ s membership too . Most club members are in the UK , and they come together for dive trips taking place all over the country throughout the year . Our members are often also members of a local BSAC club where they live . They join our club as a second club to get involved in maritime archaeology .
Are you a training club ?
We don ’ t offer Diver Training Programme training ; our divers come to us having done their dive training with BSAC clubs or other organisations . NASAC and the NAS focus on specific training for nautical archaeology . Of the BSAC Skill Development Courses , dive planning workshops and boat handling courses are popular .
What is the NAS training on offer ?
The NAS has run courses for divers to learn how to document shipwrecks underwater for more than 30 years . Skills taught range from the simple-sounding taking accurate measurements underwater to more complex photogrammetry training , where multiple still images can be stitched together to produce a wide-angle view of an underwater site . The NAS also offers e-learning courses to do in your own time , starting with the Discover Maritime Archaeology course . You can find out more in the Education section of the NAS website nauticalarchaeologysociety . org
How can divers get started ?
A good starting point for divers is the two-day Underwater Skills Days course for qualified Sports Divers and above . There are 2023 dates planned at both Stoney Cove and Vobster quarries . The sites are chosen as controlled underwater environments unaffected by the weather . For many divers , using UW surveying techniques is their
Chartwork course in progress
first exposure to having a task other than navigation to do on a dive . To facilitate the training , the society put the wreck of the Elizabethan merchant ship Gresham , first discovered in the river Thames in 2003 , into Stoney Cove some 10 years ago to provide an underwater classroom .
Last year , a shipwreck training site was created from scratch in Vobster . Sinking a fake wreck proved harder than you might think , but our second underwater classroom is now available , just past the aircraft cockpit if you know your way around Vobster .
Blue sky Britain
NAS training enables divers to get involved in underwater fieldwork opportunities across the world , or to progress to investigate their own wreck site .
What resources does the club have ?
One of our biggest resources is the unique nautical archaeological knowledge of our members . Club members can also access the NAS library of nautical records , maps and books and there is plenty of survey equipment available for loan for
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